The Public Health Crisis Hidden in Amazon Warehouses

HIDDEN IN AMAZON WAREHOUSES

JULY / SEPTEMBER 2020

JANUARY 2021 AMAZON AMAZON

Findings At a Glance: Amazon's work quota and surveillance practices are causing a public health crisis for warehouse workers and delivery drivers--with grave impacts on worker health, safety, and well-being. To protect worker health and end this crisis, California policymakers and government agencies need to create and enforce workplace standards to protect workers' safety. This includes ergonomic working conditions, stronger COVID-19 precautions, and an end to the work quota system at Amazon and throughout the warehousing industry.

Amazon's policies have created a public health crisis for warehouse workers and delivery drivers

"I hurt my hand, and . . . the following day I couldn't work. . . . A lot of people that I know have hurt their back and they don't want to say anything because they don't want to lose money, time. . . . I wanted them to send me to a doctor so that I could get a good checkup because I couldn't work. . . . I was afraid that they were going to fire me."

-- Adilene, Inducting/Rebin Worker, 1 year at LGB3, Eastvale, CA

Adilene had been working at Amazon's LGB3 Warehouse in Eastvale, California, for about a year when she sustained a serious injury to her hand while on the job. Her injury -- the direct result of the dangerous pace at which she was required to work in order to meet Amazon's quota -- may have life-long impacts on her opportunities for future employment. Adilene's story is all too common among the more than 91,000 Amazon warehouse workers across California, who face multiple health risks and severe ergonomic stressors as a result of Amazon's excessive work quotas and surveillance system.

Amazon's policies create an inhumane working environment that causes frequent injuries and chronic stress among workers, along with economic insecurity due to frequent firings and injury-related job displacement. Amidst the ongoing pandemic, the health risks are heightened as COVID-19 outbreaks continue to rise in warehouses. Amazon's workplace policies are precipitating a public health crisis that impacts thousands of workers in California, as well as their families and our broader communities.

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All people deserve a work environment in which their health and safety are valued and protected.

Policymakers and public health agencies have a responsibility to uphold labor standards and protect worker health. California policymakers and government agencies need to create and enforce workplace standards to protect the health and safety of Amazon workers like Adilene, and the more than 91,000 Californians who work either full-time or part-time for the company.

The labor of essential workers like Adilene enables millions of people across the country to purchase and receive goods directly to their doorsteps, with seemingly little more than the click of a button. During COVID-19, Amazon warehouse workers' labor has been especially critical in allowing many to receive goods and necessities from the safety of their own homes, while following shelter-in-place orders and limiting potential exposure to the virus. Amazon has profited wildly -- the company announced $88.9 billion in earnings in its second fiscal quarter of 2020 alone.

Yet the convenient consumer experience and bloated earnings hide what is truly at stake: the health, well-being, and economic security of Amazon warehouse workers and delivery drivers -- who face a dangerous reality daily.

Policymakers need to take urgent action to protect workers' health.

Human Impact Partners (HIP), in collaboration with the Warehouse Worker Resource Center (WWRC), conducted a public health study to examine how Amazon's pace of work policies and practices affect worker health, safety, and well-being. We interviewed and surveyed Amazon workers, including full-time and part-time workers at Amazon fulfillment and delivery centers, and Amazon subcontracted delivery drivers, at facilities in Southern California.*

Our findings reveal an urgent need for California policymakers and government agencies to create and enforce workplace standards that protect workers' health and safety. We hope this research will be a tool for workers, advocates, and California policymakers to take the following urgent actions to protect public health:

Prohibit inhumane and hazardous production standards at Amazon and throughout the warehouse industry

Ensure working conditions are within an ergonomic framework Implement stronger COVID-19 precautions at all Amazon warehouses and for

subcontracted delivery drivers, including unlimited time for hand washing, proper and regular sanitizing of workstations, and accessible restrooms for drivers

* Amazon's fulfilment and delivery network uses a franchise model to subcontract out to delivery companies. For this study, Amazon drivers we interviewed deliver Amazon packages and drive Amazon-branded vehicles.

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Amazon's Production Standards: Quotas, Rates, and "TOT"

Throughout this brief, we use the following terms to refer to the various productivity requirements Amazon imposes on workers:

Work quotas: The number of times a worker has to perform a task per hour;

sometimes used interchangeably with "work rates"

Work rates: A common way of referring to work quotas within Amazon; "rate" is

short for a worker's "rate of productivity"

Making rate: Workers commonly refer to the task of keeping up with the quota as

"making rate"

Time Off Task (TOT): If a worker pauses or breaks from performing certain tasks, such as scanning, that break time is tracked. After a certain amount of time, usually 6 minutes, that time is logged as "Time Off Task" (TOT). Workers may receive a notification indicating they have spent too much Time Off Task (TOT), and they can be disciplined or fired for accumulating too much TOT.

Time Off Task (TOT) Limit: Once a worker activates the 6-minute TOT threshold in a day, the clock keeps running on their TOT limit. There is typically a 30-minute TOT limit, per day, after which workers have faced disciplinary action, including firings. Our understanding is that it's used to discipline workers, but we haven't seen anything written since workers report that Amazon managers refuse to give anything in writing.

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Amazon's quota system harms worker health

"The point is this, that they're killing the drivers. Period, point blank. They're killing us with too much of the load. The load is too high. . . . It's a strain on our bodies to carry that type of load.

-- Ted, Subcontracted Delivery Driver, Hawthorne, CA

Amazon requires all warehouse workers and delivery drivers to perform tasks in accordance with strict, algorithmically generated quotas. To track if workers are making rate, Amazon monitors employees at all times via the handheld scanners many warehouse employees use, software on workers' computers, and through a tracking app on delivery drivers' mobile phones.

Exactly how Amazon determines work quotas remains unclear to many employees. Workers we spoke with expressed that their quotas seem to be arbitrary, fluctuating without warning based on task, day, and season. Since the onset of the pandemic, many report that quota requirements have increased, and a majority (72%) reported that the increased pace of work is significantly more stressful than it was in pre-COVID-19 times.

Workers reported that Amazon's excessive quotas make it impossible to complete work and make rate safely. The majority of workers surveyed reported that they experienced a constant state of stress trying to keep up. One warehouse worker reported that in order to make rate, she is required to scan a minimum of 200 items an hour, regardless of the size of the item. If she stops scanning for more than six minutes -- for example, to pack and scan a larger item, which can be more time-consuming -- Amazon's scanning device sounds an alarm indicating that she has spent too much Time Off Task (TOT). When workers surpass Amazon's TOT limit or fail to make rate, they face scrutiny and write-ups, and can be terminated.

Amazon's surveillance practices and inhumane production standards are unrelenting and unforgiving. Workers are monitored by cameras and a computer system that are insensitive to human needs. If a worker needs to use the restroom or requires extra time to complete a complex task, there is seldom an opportunity to pass this by a human manager -- they can still receive a TOT warning.

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